suddenly caulerpa in refugium turned white ????

[mweber]

About 1 week ago I changed my lighting in 20 gal refugium from 24/7 to 16/7 about 4 days later my caulerpa looks very sick. Coincidence or cause, or another cause. Do I need to worry, or change back to 24/7?

 

[2poor2reef]

I do not know what causes it to do this but I have observed it in newly introduced plants as well as plants which undergo some kind of stress due to lighting, temperature, overcrowding, etc. I have stopped using most caulerpa in my refugiums because I grew tired of my export mechanism backfiring on me and realeasing all those nutrients back into the water column.

 

[DarwinTheDog]

This could indicate that your caulerpa is going into a sexual reproduction mode. This can happen, especially when the density of caulerpa become thicker. Do you export (harvest) caulerpa regular basis? Keep in mind if the caulerpa does go sexual it will lead to a nutrient bloom.

HTH

 

[esmithiii]

Mine changes color when the water in the sump drops and they are exposed for prolonged periods of time to the air.

E

 

[jmeader]

You can tell the night before if they are going to spore out the next morning. The blades get a bit pale and if you look closely at the runners, the lower half will have become clear.

 

[mweber]

Sounds like reproduction to me from your descriptions. I am not using my skimmer as I have a Jaubert plenum. Is there something I should be using besids caulerpa? Yes, I do prune it although I haven't lately, as it didn't look all that thick to me.

 

[mweber]

Last night I went home and it is like it was almost totally desinigrated so I pulled it out and trashed it. Still sound like reproduction?

 

[Blowfishaq]

Yes it is reproduction. The parent colony dies and releases millions of spores into the water. The light change caused it. Mine did the same when the bulb over the refigum went out.

 

[kevjtomy]

Not that this will help, just a comment...I think what you are talking about happened to my ? (some type of plant I'm sure what it is growing on a piece of live rock). I started to let it get a little out of hand as far as how much I wanted in the tank. I was kneeling on the floor looking at it then all of a sudden all of the "green" seemed to almost melt right out of most of the plant. Looked really weird. Anyway, it lived....

 

[randy holmes-farley]

I know this isn't your case, but the growing tips of my caulerpa are always white. So people should not take white tips as necessarily an indication of impending problems.